Maltese Recipes

• Aljotta - A tomato and fish soup, flavored with herbs and garlic, and often served over rice.
  
  
• Bigilla - A dip made from mashed dried broad beans. Sometimes, but always, it is flavored with chillies.
  
  
• Bragjoli - A mixture of breadcrumbs, with bacon, cheese and eggs, wrapped ina thin slice of beef.
  
  
• Brodu - A meat (chicken or beef) and vegetable broth, served with pasta.
  
  
• Fenkata - Lightly fried rabbit meat, which is then cooked with gravy or tomato sauce as a casserole for several hours.
  
  
• Imqaret - A deep-fried pastry containing dates.
  
  
• Kapunata - The Maltese version of ratatouille. Kapunata may be served hot or cold, and is sometimes even used as a topping for pizzas.
  
  
• Kusksu - A thick soup made with chicken stock, pasta beads (also known as "kusksu"), broad beans, onions and tomato paste, flavored with garlic.
  
  
• Laham taz-ziemel - Stallion meat in a white wine sauce.
  
  
• Lampuka - Mahi-mahi, which may either be pan-fried with olive oil, made into fish pies, or oven-baked with a tomato and white wine sauce.
  
  
• Minestra - A thick and hearty vegetable soup, particularly popular during the Winter months. Minestra is usually eaten with crusty bread known as "hobza".
  
  
• Soppa ta' l-armla - "Widow's soup" - A variant of minestra, which people traditonally gave to poor widows in their neighborhoods. Fresh gbejniet (small, round cheeses, made from sheep's milk) are added, and these melt in the soup, and finally, raw eggs, which coagulate the soup, are added.
  
  
• Mqarrun il-Forn - Baked macaroni with bolognese sauce and egg. There are quite a few variations of the recipe, for example peas and bacon are added in some variants. In all versions of the dish, the pasta is either topped with bescamella (white sauce), or a layer of grated cheese.
  
  
• Pastizzi - Pastry stuffed with ricotta or a mushy pea mixture.
  
  
• Ross il-Forn - Baked rice. This dish is similar to Mqarrun il-Forn, but with rice instead of macaroni, and the addition of curry.
  
  
• Timpana - A pastry covered version of Mqarrun il-Forn (baked macaroni). A small amount of ground (minced) beef, and sometimes hard-boiled eggs, are added, then then the whole thing is encased in a pastry crust.
  
  
• Qargha Baghli - Stuffed marrows with ground (minced) beef and parsley. Qargha Baghli may either be baked or made into a creamy soup.
  
  
• Ravjul - The Maltese version of ravioli, filled with ricotta and parsley (and sometimes spinach), or with minced meat. The dish is covered with a tomato sauce and topped with cheese.
  
  
• Zalzett tal-Malti - A traditional Maltese sausage made from pork and flavored with black peppercorns, coriander seeds, parsley, sea salt, and sometimes garlic. There are many different varrieties, some of which are dried and others that are eaten fresh. Additionally, there are versions of Zalzett tal-Malti which are suitable to be eaten raw, and others that require cooking.

• Figolla - An biscuit stuffed with sweet ground almonds, and coated with icing. Figolla is traditionally at Easter, and made in shapes such as a fish or lamb (because of their Christian religious connotations), as well as hearts, ducks, rabbits, etc.
  
  
• Helwa tat-Tork - "Turk's sweet" - The Maltese version of Halva.
  
  
• Qaghaq ta' l-Ghasel - A light pastry ring made with treacle or honey. At one time, this dish was only eaten at Christmas, but nowadays, it is eaten all year round.
  
  
• Pudina ta' l-Hobz - A bread pudding made from stale bread, soaked in water over night to soften it. The dish is prepared by adding milk, cocoa, sugar, dried fruit, and nuts, as well as, in some recipes, liqueurs.
  
  
• Kwarezimal - Biscuits, traditionally eaten during Lent.

Related Links

• Maltese Recipes & Cookbooks